Ron Banks, whose silky falsetto helped give the Dramatics one of the most enduring careers in R&B, has died at home in Detroit. He was 58.

Banks died at about noon today, possibly of a massive heart attack, said Billy Wilson, president of the Motown Alumni Association.

The Northern High School graduate was the founder of the Detroit vocal group, which formed in the early 1960s and continued to play for avid audiences around the country. Aside from a short break in the mid-1980s, the group has worked continuously since its early days playing Chene Street nightclubs, and has been a staple of the annual '70s Soul Jam revue tours.